Tammy Zywicki and Sarah Brady

By Richard Griffith

October 1, 1993

Last year at about this time Tammy Zywicki, 21, was undoubtedly looking
forward to seeing her friends again and starting another semester at Grinnell
College in Iowa. Her father commented in the Kansas City Star how much
she loved people and was a very caring and friendly person. He called her his
princess. A happy and beautiful young woman with much to look forward to in
life, Tammy Zywicki, never made it to Grinnell College.

She first had car trouble in New Jersey, according to her brother Daren.
Thinking the car was fixed, she continued on alone after she dropped him off at
Northwestern University in Illinois. Tammy's car eventually broke down on
Interstate 80 near Utica Illinois. A witness remembered seeing a truck driver
looking under the hood of Tammy's car as she stood by.

Stranded on the highway, far from home, Tammy was probably frightened, lonely
and unsure. What happened next to her is unimaginable for us. We may pretend to
understand but we really don't. It wasn't a horror movie or the latest Dean
Koontz novel. Sometime that day someone assaulted Tammy.

Tammy was kidnapped, stabbed seven times, and her body was dumped into a
ditch off Interstate 44 in Missouri. At some point during this nightmare Tammy
knew she would never graduate from college, never have a career, or be married,
or have a child. She knew she would never see the sun rise again.

Kate Petit's experience in Florida was remarkably similar to Tammy's.
Traveling along a highway in Florida between Lake Kissimmee and Tampa,her car
broke down and Kate was left stranded. Because her car was on fire, Kate
couldn't sit in the car with the windows locked; instead she had to stand by the
roadside alone. A well dressed, respectable looking man got out of his car with
a smile on his face and offered to help.

In the next instant, the man pulled a knife out of his pocket, pressed it
into Kate's ribs, and told her he would thrust the knife into her heart if she
didn't cooperate. Kate was forced into the man's trunk and as they drove along
he screamed dementedly at her. After a half and hour of this ordeal the car
pulled off the road and stopped. The man started to open up the trunk.

Kate Petit didn't die that day. She didn't end up bludgeoned, mutilated or
raped as countless thousands of women are very day across this nation. This day
was different. As the man opened up the trunk, Kate had already positioned
herself and was ready. She pulled the trigger on the licensed .38 caliber
revolver she carried in her purse and shot this crazed man dead.

I don't know if Tammy's life would have been saved if she had been armed. I
do know that the research from some of most respected criminologists documents
that firearms are extremely effective for self-defense, especially for women.

In Florida it is now legal for women to obtain a concealed weapons permit.
When this legislation was introduced the press in Florida went berserk
predicting a Wild West. That didn't happen. Homicide fell 25% in that state, and
criminals there today seem to prefer dealing with unarmed tourists, instead of
armed natives.

It turns out that the Florida women who sought permits to carry a handgun had
good reasons: they lived alone or had to travel late at night through crime
infested neighborhoods because of their jobs. Many who applied for permits were
women who were begin stalked by violent former boyfriends or ex-husbands. Police
and many in the media now credit the law with having saved innocent lives.

It is difficult then to understand how Sarah Brady (the chair of Handgun
Control Inc.) can list as one of her triumphs the blocking of reform legislation
to allow concealed weapons permits in Missouri, Louisiana and Texas. In these
states and in many others it is illegal for a woman to carry a handgun for
self-defense, no matter how endangered she is or how much training she is
willing to acquire. In pursuit of the goal of controlling guns, Sarah Brady
seems willing to disarm those who need firearms to defend themselves and their
children the most.

I can understand some of the pain Sarah Brady feels. A family member of mine,
a police officer, was shot in the head by a drug dealer. He wasn't as lucky as
Jim Brady. He was left to die by his partners who panicked after the first shots
rang out. To me though, it is still wrong, no matter how much one may have
suffered personally, to trample on the rights of others and to distort the
facts. I wonder how many more Tammy Zywickis will have to die before Sarah Brady
begins to listen.

-------------------------------------------------

Richard Griffith, a college student in Manhattan, Kansas, wrote this
article for the Independence Institute, a think tank in Golden, Colorado.

Make a donation to support Dave Kopel's work in defense of constitutional
rights and public safety.

Nothing written here is to be construed as
necessarily representing the views of the Independence Institute or as an
attempt to influence any election or legislative action. Please send
comments to Independence Institute, 727 East 16th Ave., Denver, Colorado 80203 Phone 303-279-6536. (email)webmngr @ i2i.org